Prologue

What if…. Severus Tobias Snape had followed out his threat of administering Veritserum to Harry James Potter's evening pumpkin juice, albeit two years later than he issued it?

What if…. that night Harry James Potter was at dinner and Hermione Jane Granger, sitting to the left of Harry, starts her lecture about house elves and how they should be freed?

What if this spurred Harry James Potter to make a comment instead of "Err"?

What if this comment went something like "Well at least they enjoy the work"?

What if that was the moment where Harry James Potter took his first few large gulps of pumpkin juice at dinner that night and Hermione Jane Granger said immediately after "Would you enjoy the work if you were treated as a house elf?"

What if his answer was "I am a house elf Hermione, and no I don't enjoy it."?

What if…


Chapter 1

Hermione looked confused now. "What do you mean you're a house elf Harry?"

Harry, still under the influence of the Veritserum, said with a straight face "Because the Dursleys treat me as one."

"What?" Hermione exclaimed in disbelief.

"I cook, clean, maintain their home and if I don't do it adequately I am beaten." Here, Hermione gasped loud enough to capture the attention of Ron sitting next to her- gorging himself as usual.

"Huh?" He said intelligently in response to her gasp. When Hermione didn't respond to him he shrugged and went back to his food, thinking nothing was amiss.

"I do not punish myself for doing things wrong because the Dursleys do that themselves. "

Hermione wanted to ask more questions but she could see something was wrong. She thought to herself, "Harry has never talked about his home life this openly before. The way he abandoned his food and that blank stare…Veritserum!" The Great Hall was slowly emptying now and no one paid attention to her as she cast a revealing charm over Harry's food. A blue light hovered over the tainted pumpkin juice. Almost everyone had left the Great Hall, even Ron after he had grabbed some extra biscuits "for later," so the only people left was the staff sans Professor Snape and Professor Trelawney as per usual.

Dragging the drugged Harry to the Head Table with a worried look on her face, she stopped right in front of Headmaster Albus "Too Many Names" Dumbledore. He looked on sagely, with a bit of twinkle in his eyes.

"What brings you to the Heads' Table Miss Granger?" He asked as he popped a lemon drop in his mouth.

"Harry," She gasped, and then continued, "He's been drugged with Veritserum sir." She waved the goblet, sloshing the pumpkin juice inside it.

"Is that all Miss Granger, it is surely just a practical joke by perhaps the Weasley twins?"

"Sir," She exclaimed. "This was not a practical joke. He said things about his fami- I mean the Dursleys" Hermione amended. Those people were not a family to Harry.

"Is that not usual, to speak about your loved ones?" Dumbledore asked, peering over his glasses at Hermione.

"No, not at all sir. They are hardly mentioned and now I've heard why. They're absolutely horrid to Harry." She said, ranting but still trying to be respectful. "Ask Harry now, before the Veritserum wears off. Please sir."

"I will do no such thing Miss Granger. I do not believe what was in his pumpkin juice was at all Veritserum. It must have been the Weasley Twins doing, a joke potion to say less than polite things about that person's relatives when drunk." He said matter-of-factly.

Hermione stared gob smacked at him. This was the wisest wizard at Hogwarts. She then turned to Harry. "Harry is what you drank Veritserum?"

"Yes." He replied.

"You see? Why would the Twins-"

"Miss Granger, that is quite enough. Dinner is over and as such," He paused "we must go to bed. Good night Miss Granger."

Hermione watched as the man called Fawkes the Phoenix, who in fact gave Hermione an apologetic look that left her somewhat bewildered, and flamed out with Dumbledore.

By now, the Veritserum had completely worn off and gone was the dazed Harry. "I can't believe the bastard actually put truth serum in my freaking evening pumpkin juice. Two years he waited. Two years!" Harry ranted angrily.

"Harry." Hermione said forcefully. "Who? You mean that was true? There was Veritserum in your drink?" Harry was stopped cold. He forgot Hermione was there. Moreover, that she now knew about the Dursleys. Harry turned slowly to Hermione, opened his mouth and burst into tears at his secret, the one he kept for six years being revealed through one very illegal potion and unfortunate timed questions. Hermione was shocked at this- Harry never cried.

"Harry-," she started but cut herself off seeing the distraught boy collapse onto the floor of the Great Hall.

(A/N): A good start? I'm not sure if I'm going to update this frequently or even continue. Not sure if this will have a pairing either. This is basically a writing exercise to get ready for NaNoWriMo in November, but more edited of course haha.